Bang For My Buck: 30 Days Of Marvel Unlimited, Day 10 – Road Trip To Annihilation

To take full advantage of the fact that Marvel Unlimited is only 99 cents for the first month if you sign up by March 14 — which, sadly, is now in the past — Nick is trying to see how much use of the service he can get for just under a dollar. Every day, he’ll share what he read. See the previous day here.

Up to this point, I’ve been Marvel Unlimited almost exclusively in my own home, either sitting on my couch or reading in bed right before I go to sleep. But what fun is it to have thousands of comics right in the palm of your hand if you can’t take them on the road?

For today’s entry, I decided to use the app’s ability to mark 12 issues (up from six when it was first launched) for offline reading. Technically, this was easy to do. When you’re browsing through comics, there’s an option to add the issue you are currently viewing to your library. There’s also a little slider underneath that allows you to immediately add the issue as one you can read while offline.

I didn’t realize it at the time, but any issue you mark in that fashion immediately begins downloading to your device. So as I was going through trying to complete my full complement of offline issues, the others were already loading, and by the time I had finished, all but the final three were already done. You can also go into your “Library” tab and select issues for offline reading for there. The app will give you a warning if you’ve already filled up your allotment, at which point you need to go into the library and delete something so you can add more.

I took my iPad with me on the road while one of my friends drove to an NBA game, and all 12 issues fired up instantly whenever I wanted to read them. It’s hard not to like this feature, especially when it works so smoothly.

The post title may have given away what I took with me, but just in case …

Annihilation #1-6

Why I read it: Though I’ve historically enjoyed the cosmic/space sagas of the Marvel Universe, this is one I’ve never gotten around to checking out. It’s also perfectly sized to fit into my road trip gimmick at six issues.

What I thought: Though it might help to read what set up this limited series, not to mention the various character-focused minis that ran alongside it, Annihilation tells a pretty good tale all on its own. Keith Giffen throws you right into the middle of a desperate situation as Nova and the former Star-Lord lead an alliance that is trying to hold back Annihilus and his army of extra-dimensional bugs. Spicing things up is the involvement of Thanos, though his allegiance wavers as the series goes on.

Multiple characters get great moments. Drax realizes his destiny, even though it almost dooms the whole galaxy in the process. Ronan remains the most badass Kree in Marvel history. Galactus is treated like the cosmic force of nature he is. And Phyla-Vell manages to come through in the clutch.

It’s tricky to do a super hero, sci-fi and war story all in one, but Giffen pulls it off. Again, it may help to read the other connected mini-series to get a broader sense of the scope here, but it’s not essential to your enjoyment.

I wasn’t familiar with penciller Andrea Di Vito, but he does a nice job with a very broad cast of characters. Annihilation is pretty good stuff the whole way around.

Annihilation: Conquest #1-6

Why I read it: It’s a natural follow-up to the first Annihilation. It’s also the work of the highly regarded writing team of Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, and it has Ultron in it.

What I thought: This is going to be an unpopular opinion, because everyone loves “DnA,” but Conquest isn’t as engrossing as its predecessor. The stakes are just as high, thanks to the Ultron-Phalanx combination rising to the level of galaxy-wide threat, but you don’t feel the same sense of impending doom.

Abnett and Lanning do work in an interesting take on Adam Warlock, even though it’s weird seeing him as butt-kicker instead of cosmic chess player. The scenes with the heroes who will go on to become the new Guardians of the Galaxy are almost universally awesome, and this would be a great place to start falling in love with Rocket Raccoon and Groot is you haven’t already.

Ultimately, there were two things that bugged me about this series. One was the willingness of Ultron to place his consciousness inside a living being, even one as “genetically perfect” as Warlock. That just doesn’t jive with his stated goal for his entire existence, which is to wipe out all life.

The other thing, which can’t be blamed on the writers, is that Conquest isn’t self-contained enough. Unlike Annihilation, you’re missing an important part of the action, as the arrival of Nova, Drax and the Technarchy comes off as a deus ex machina (no pun intended given how many mechanical menaces there are here) if you don’t read the Nova tie-in issues.

So where does that leave us? Solid, but not spectacular, and since it does pave the way for DnA’s excellent Guardians of the Galaxy run, it’s probably worth reading if you’re really interested in those characters.

Day 10 issues read: 12

Total issues read to date: 134